


He is not one of us

by Prince_Zukos_Honor



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, But this was so much fun to write, Gen, Intense, Songfic, The gaang is ooc, They're all too dark, Zuko is Kovu from the Lion King 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-14 07:10:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20596778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prince_Zukos_Honor/pseuds/Prince_Zukos_Honor
Summary: Zuko didn't stop combustion man, and the Gaang doesn't take well to Zuko trying to join a second time. Au of The Western Air Temple.Inspired/Based on the Song "One of Us" from the Lion King 2





	He is not one of us

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: this fic gets pretty intense. So if you're sensitive, I'd skip this read

Zuko hadn’t even thought to call off the assassin, too caught up in honor and destiny and burned feet. The ground shook with blasts too sharp, too powerful, and remembered.

He ran as fast as he could to the temple. "Get out of here and don’t come back. If we ever see you again- well, we better not see you again!" The words Katara said bounced around his skull. Zuko wished he were smarter, wished he had never sent the assassin, wished so many things.

When the booms stopped, there could only be two reasons why. He didn’t plan to stop running and contemplate it.

The rubble choked out the beauty of the temple. Flicks of blood and soot lined the cliff Zuko climbed, and he tried desperately to avoid its red slickness. He hefted himself to the pavilion, and heard voices. Voices. Zuko’s immediate relief was met with raised weapons and elements.

The group had been huddled around the Avatar who appeared nearly dead, to put it lightly. His skin was ashen, eyes closed in pain. He looked moments away from passing out, or dying. Zuko couldn’t tell. If Katara’s glare was anything to go by, if Sokka’s cinched mouth, If Toph’s shaking fists didn’t tell him what happened here, then Zuko really was an idiot. He was already an idiot for sending the assassin after them. He stood and took a step toward them, if only to avoid going down the hard way. Every part of him wanted to avoid this fight.

“I- I didn’t know-”

“You.” Katara said in a tone icy enough to freeze water.

Sokka darted in front of her, yelling, “You know, it seems funny that the moment we kick you out Combustion man shows up! You were dumb showing your lying, no good, fire nation face here again!”

“I didn’t know he was here! I didn’t want this to happen!” His voice was as shaky as his hands. Aang survived Azula’s lighting, but could he come back to life twice?

“Zuko, I never thought I would hate someone as much as you. Just when I think you sunk to your lowest, you try to murder Aang again, and you lie about it!” Zuko flinched. His mouth stayed shut. His inner fire flickered like a candle in the wind. “That scar has never suited you more.”

It felt to Zuko as if the rock had dropped beneath him. As if forever disappointed faces were the entire world, now. Fire from turmoil, and ice from shock clashed in his mind, his breath control faltering, cracks in his armor widening. 

“I was blind when I thought we could trust you. You’re not, and will never be one of us.” Toph hurtled a rock at Zuko, as the voices persisted. He barely dodged the attack, his entire body centered on their words.

In a sound so low Zuko could barely make out, Aang says, “You should’ve never come here. Go.”

He tried to speak, tried to defend himself. But his body needed the air more than his mouth, and, at this point, nothing he could say could capture his frenzied emotions. Besides, thinking was a waste when a rock nearly took your head off.

There were more earth attacks for Zuko to dodge, though it was shockingly easy after the first two boulders. The world shifted as he continued his struggled to breathe. “Fire Nation never change.” Sokka proclaimed sturdily, drawing his blades. Zuko drew his, only to block. Sokka was good, but if Zuko excelled in one thing, it was this. 

This moment felt straight out of a nightmare, and all he could do was dodge, lest he anger them more.

Sokka kept attacking, foregoing technique and trying to overpower him by sheer anger. Then, water snapped Zuko’s side, cutting his ivory skin. ”You will never change, Zuko. You’ll always be weak, and evil, and- and a traitor!” Katara cried, but it didn't for one second impede her as she used up all the water in the fountain and hurled it at him. By sheer luck, he maneuvered Sokka toward it. Katara turned the ice to gentle water, the ground absorbing the liquid.

Maybe a second later, Toph hurled a rock that landed home, one that he realized she’d been trying to hurl for a while, and Zuko finally realized why- her feet were burned. Maybe in another in another life, in one he’d made the right choices, Toph would have mercy on him. The blow landed on his shoulder, forcing him to drop his blades. 

His already fogged brain connects to foggy limbs deprived of air. He made no move before rock encased his legs. Sokka pinned a sword to his neck, expression mirroring his sister’s. Katara pulled her water from the ground. It lifted higher and higher. “Toph, when I stomp my foot, let go of Zuko’s restraints. Sokka, when the water drops, run.” Sokka exchanged a look with Toph, his sister’s ominous tone unsettling him.

“Katara…” Sokka started, interrupted by the wet, miserable cough of Aang. Zuko, through blurry eyes made out his increasing stillness. Sokka, giving a wary look to his sister, left Zuko to see Aang. 

Toph, who had seemed shifty, hardened her face. “Whatever you think is right.” Katara nodded. Zuko’s heart pulsed haphazardly. Looking into the waterbender’s eyes, he felt more fear than when he fought Zhao, felt more fear than facing his father.

The blue was unforgiving.

“I should let you run; I should let you live a pathetic, lonely life.” She paused. This did not give Zuko any hope. “Zuko, you lied to me, to us. We knew you would never stop hunting Aang that you could never, ever, belong with us.”

Her hands dropped; her foot stomped. “Do not forget what we cannot forgive.”

Death looked like a spike of ice. It impaled his chest, and probably his heart. He imagined his blood flowed down, imagined his face went slack. His feet left the cliffside, being propelled by the motion of the weapon. He wasn’t worried about air anymore.

In life, he didn’t use his brain. In death, his mind wanted to catch up. He remembered Ursa. He loved her, and she, him. Still, Zuko knew she never loved Ozai, knew his own birth was unwanted.

After her death, he had only hatred to guide him. He’d hated Azula for being perfect, hated Uncle for being like Ursa, hated the world because that’s what the fire nation did. Uncle had tried to teach him better, but traitors never learn.

And, in the end, he had been helpless to defy fate.

"You know, Prince Zuko, Destiny is a funny thing."

Zuko agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> These are the lyrics it was based on:
> 
> Deception/Disgrace/Evil as plain as the scar on his face
> 
> Deception (An outrage!)/Disgrace (For shame!)/He asked for trouble the moment he came
> 
> Deception (An outrage!)/(He can't change his stripes)/Disgrace (For shame!)/(You know these Outsider types)/Evil as plain as the scar on his face/(See you later, agitator!)/Deception (An outrage!)/(Just leave us alone!)/Disgrace (For shame!)/(Traitor, go back with your own!)/He asked for trouble the moment he came/(See you later, agitator!)
> 
> Born in grief/Raised in hate/Helpless to defy his fate/Let him run/Let him live/But do not forget what we cannot forgive  
And he is not one of us/He has never been one of us/He is not part of us/Not our kind
> 
> Someone once lied to us/Now we're not so blind/For we knew he would do what he's done/And we know that he'll never be one of us/He is not one of us
> 
> Deception/Disgrace/Deception/Disgrace/Deception


End file.
